Antem

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Antem & Monroig
Antem Monroig & Guyot
Antem Carrossier
legal form
founding 1923
resolution 1997
Seat Neuilly-sur-Seine , Courbevoie and Doudeville , France
management Jean Antem
Branch Body shop

Antem Carrossier (initially: Antem & Monroig or Antem Monroig & Guyot ) was a French body construction company that manufactured high-quality individual items on the basis of upper-class chassis as well as some bodies in small series in the period between the World Wars and a short time afterwards.

Jean Antem

The company was founded by the Spaniard Jean Antem (1893–1972), who was born as Juan Antem either in Barcelona or in Palma de Mallorca , depending on the source . Antem's father ran a cartwright in Catalonia . After completing an apprenticeship as a blacksmith in Spain, Jean Antem moved to France in 1910. In the following years he worked for various body manufacturers in Paris . Some sources state that he also trained at Van den Plas. It is not clear whether it was the Belgian company Carosserie Van den Plas or the independent Parisian company Willy van den Plas . Antem returned to Catalonia during World War I , but went back to Paris immediately after the 1918 armistice. In 1929 he took French citizenship and changed his first name from Juan to Jean.

Company history

A Delahaye 135M with convertible body from Antem (1948)
DB Panhard Barquette with Antem body (1951)
Antem limousine based on Citroën 2CV by Philippe Charbonneaux

In 1919 Antem founded a repair workshop for automobiles in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. After the Spaniard Camille Monroig took a stake in the company, this became the company Antem & Monroig, which was located in Neuilly-sur-Seine and produced car bodies from 1924. In 1924 Antem & Monroig exhibited for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. In 1925 the company got another shareholder; it then traded as Antem Monroig & Guyot. Four years later, Antem took over the shares of its business partners. Since then the company has been called Antem Carrossier. After the end of the Second World War, Antem moved into new premises in Courbevoie .

The importance of Antems is assessed differently. Some sources consider the company to be one of the leading French coachbuilders of the interwar period, others see Antem as "one of the best of the second set".

Automobile bodies

In the 1930s, Antem produced exclusive one-offs on chassis from Delahaye , Talbot or Bugatti ; there were also occasional bodies for Mercedes and Rolls-Royce chassis. During this time, however, small series orders for Ariès and Corre-La Licorne ensured economic survival .

After the end of the Second World War , Antem resumed body production. The company mainly focused on the upper class manufacturer Delahaye, with Antem supplying a large part of the bodies for the Delahaye 235 . In terms of style, the superstructures were considered heavy and conservative. In addition, a number of unique pieces were created, including a coupé body for the last chassis of the Bugatti 101 type (chassis number 101.504), which in later years temporarily belonged to the actor Nicolas Cage . At times there were close business relationships with the small series manufacturer Deutsch-Bonnet , for whom Antem not only manufactured some road vehicles based on the 2 liter model (1949) but also clad some racing vehicles. A number of individual pieces were also created on Citroën chassis . Often it was a pontoon-style coupé , more rarely a four-door sedan, some of which had sweeping bodies with free-standing fenders. A small four-door sedan was also created as a one-off on the chassis of the Citroën 2CV . Many of the structures of this era were designed by Philippe Charbonneaux . This also applied to the 2CV sedan.

In 1955 Antem gave up body production.

commercial vehicles

One of Antem's sons relocated the business to Doudeville in Normandy. There the company manufactured vehicle trailers and cabs for tractors. In 1997 the company was closed.

literature

  • Serge Bellu: A French Touch of Class. Les Ateliers de carrosserie français , Editions Nicolas Chaudun 2012, ISBN 978-2-35039-136-6

Web links

Commons : Antem  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Brief description of Antem's history on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed October 6, 2017).
  2. ↑ A brief overview of French car body manufacturers in the interwar years (accessed October 6, 2017).
  3. ^ A b c Serge Bellu: A French Touch of Class. Les Ateliers de carrosserie français , Editions Nicolas Chaudun 2012, ISBN 978-2-35039-136-6 , p. 197.
  4. ^ A b c Serge Bellu: A French Touch of Class. Les Ateliers de carrosserie français , Editions Nicolas Chaudun 2012, ISBN 978-2-35039-136-6 , p. 199.
  5. ↑ Roger Gloor: All Cars of the 50s . 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02808-1 , p. 124.